Author
Spotlight
Nicholas
Belardes
About the Author:
Nicholas Belardes writes fiction, essays and poetry.
A ghostwriter for popular fiction, his debut essay collection is Ranting Out
Loud: Life, Pop Culture & How We Sometimes Don’t Get Along. His work has
appeared in Carve Magazine, Pithead Chapel, the Acentos Review, the Island
Review, Memoir Journal, 826 Seattle’s What to Read in the Rain, Barrelhouse,
Mission at Tenth, the Nervous Breakdown, Latino Rebels, the Weeklings, and
others. He illustrated the New York Times best-selling novel West of Here, and
is the author of the first original twitterature, Small Places, which has been
talked about in the U.K. Guardian, Telegraph, Reuters, Christian Science
Monitor, Wired, The Bohemian, and more. He’s contributed to CNN and other news
sites, and once talked about red-haired witches on Coast to Coast A.M. with
George Noory.
Nicholas currently lives in San Luis Obispo,
California with his partner, writer Jane Hawley. Interviews and other requests:
nickbelardes@gmail.com. He tweets from @nickbelardes.
Social
Media Links:
About
the Book:
In his debut essay collection, Nicholas Belardes
uses today’s pop culture and self-deprecating humor as a filter for discussing
personal stories of family, writing, gender, art, and race. He dives into the
Harry Potter play and discusses his cursed childhood home. He tells
coming-of-age tales of Dungeons & Dragons and blames Stranger Things for
jogging those hilarious memories. In great detail he describes how working for
a cheesy Las Vegas animation company meant everything to a relationship with
his dad. And he presents an unpopular artistic argument for how Tyrion
Lannister of Game of Thrones may have ruined his life as a writer (not really).
He gives you Star Wars and its weird connections to the Catcher in the Rye (as
well as artistic expectations in education). In an essay about race he presents
virtual universes, cowboy images of his racist dad, and odd choices of identity
in Ready Player One. He even provides a layman’s guide for how to introduce
someone to Star Trek while at the same time telling us that what we mimic might
not be good for us. He also discusses miscommunication in the world in relation
to writing the first original Twitter novel, Small Places. And finally, he
describes how American numbness negatively affects the world of art. Belardes
presents a side of our humanity working in tandem with pop culture. It isn’t
always pretty, though it is hopeful, sometimes funny, and full of promise.
PRAISE:
“Ranting Out Loud is binge-worthy essay reading. As
immersed in pop culture as I am as a critic and entertainment journalist, I
know that understanding personal bias is everything. Whether discussing Tyrion
Lannister or Harry Potter, Californian Belardes digs deep into his own twisted
psyche to deep read the pop culture that oozes around us, finding depths in the
shallows, and shallows in the depths.” —Thelma Adams, author of The Last Woman
Standing, Playdate, and frequent contributor to the New York Observer and
Variety.
“A refreshingly honest love-hate letter to pop
culture. Nicholas Belardes doesn’t try to pretend that our tech and media
obsessions can either be reduced to guilty pleasures or influential icons of
our time. Instead, with sharp and brutal introspection, he delves into what the
shows, movies, novels, politics and tweets that consume him say about him, and
causes us to do the same.” —Natalia Sylvester, author of Chasing the Sun
“David Foster Wallace meets Hunter S. Thompson in
this ode to the triumphs and defeats of pop culture. Belardes might be the most
informed, intelligent and hilariously iconoclastic guide we’ll ever have to
help us bridge the digital divide. Who else dares talk about Dostoevsky in the
same breath as Winona Ryder? In Belardes’s nimble mental meanderings, we find
Rilke alongside Sam the Mattress Man, Knossos alongside Las Vegas. Even as he
is telling us everything we always wanted to know about Holden Caulfield and
Luke Skywalker but were afraid to ask, Belardes’s underlying message becomes
increasingly clear: art has been dumbed down, artifice is everywhere, and we no
longer know what “real” is. “We. Can’t. Feel.” Belardes says, but he’s no
misanthrope, and in these essays, we find ourselves in the astute and tender
company of someone who loves the world.” —Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom
of Men
“Nicholas Belardes has incisively given the world a
stellar debut collection of essays.” —Caroline Leavitt, NYT best-selling author
of Cruel Beautiful World, This is Tomorrow, and Pictures of You
“. . . reads like a love letter to pop culture—I
couldn’t get enough. Belardes’ essays are addictive: you finish one and can’t
wait to start the next. The snappy, fast-paced writing uses pop culture as a
lens to look at everything—family, writing, jobs, gender, and ultimately what
it means to be human. I binged on this book like it was a new season of Game of
Thrones.” —Lara Zielin, author of The
Waiting Sky and The Implosion of Aggie Winchester
“Many of my favorite books are actually rants. On
the Road was Kerouac’s expression of being “mad to live.” Lord of the Rings was
an elegantly elven diatribe against the tree-killing machines of war and
industry, along with being the best-ever take-down of Nazis. Joan Didion’s
Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a gorgeous screed of Sixties counterculture. I
could go on and that is part of the point—they DO go on and thank god for that
because all ideas can’t be expressed in 140 characters. Nicholas Belardes rants
with the best of them and Didion better watch her back because he, too, has
culture in his crosshairs. Belardes writes with a sharp eye and an even sharper
pen. Covering cinema, pop obsessions, history and the not so United States, he
is an articulate witness to the strange, stubborn and intractable truths of our
time.” —Brenda Knight, author of Women of the Beat Generation
Buy
Links:
Author
Interview:
- Describe a
typical writing day. Are you a morning, afternoon, or night-owl writer?
Many mornings I meander to Kreuzberg Coffee Company
in San Luis Obispo, California where I hide in the darkest corner, type, sip
coffee, and nibble a blueberry muffin.
- Can you
tell us about your current work-in-progress?
I have a few. One is a graphic narrative short about
the time I went to the vigil of Richard Chavez (He designed the flag of the
UFW). I sometimes send these types of comics to journals. Another is short
fiction about a mysterious amusement park map that a kid finds. I’ve been
working with an agent writing sample chapters for a Middle Grade novel about a
tunnel collapse. Lastly, I’m in final revisions for a 750-page literary fantasy
novel. I was deeply inspired by some of the structural techniques in Jonathan
Strange & Mr Norrell (among other noteworthy novels).
- What
inspires you when you’re writing?
Lights at the ends of tunnels. I can see them even
when they’re years away. Other times, as in my essay collection, Ranting Out
Loud: Life, Pop Culture & How We Sometimes Don’t Get Along, inward
lights—those that interconnect between me and the outside world. In the case of
that book it was pop culture colliding with memories.
- What’s your
favorite item on your writing desk?
I’ve become unnervingly attached to ethereal things
that make up digital clouds. Mostly that means stories and essays that have
become my friends. They need my attention. Without them I’m lost in every way.
- What’s your
favorite genre and why?
Literary and fantasy, and the beautiful combination
they sometimes make.
- Any advice
you have for a blossoming author?
Study. Read. Never stop writing. Listen. Find really
smart, successful writers who will look at your words. Listen to them when they
have advice. Realize you need to grow.
- When you’re
not writing, how do you spend your time?
I walk up a nearby mountain, or down through the
city. Some days I wander along beach trails. The rest is family time. I never
get enough of that.
- What or who
inspired you to become a writer?
I wasn’t struck by lightning while walking through a
dark meadow or anything like that . . . Writing is the only work I care about
other than doing a good job when washing the dishes. It calls for a
mind-numbing thoroughness.
- How long
have you been writing? How long as a published writer?
Twenty years ago my first story was published. I
began reinventing myself three years ago. My craft has gone through a lot of
recent development. Ranting Out Loud is a testament to the hard work I’ve been
putting in.
Just for fun:
- Do you have
any pets?
I really really want a dog.
- Who’s your
favorite musician/band?
RVRBOY. Their debut single is my mantra:
https://soundcloud.com/rvrboy/riverman Oh, and it’s my son’s band.
- What’s your
favorite vacation spot?
Lately I’ve been attracted to the deserts of
Arizona.
- Do you like
coffee or tea?
Coffee.
- Did you go
to college? If so, what was your major?
Graduate school in history though I’m known to crash
fiction courses.
- Are you a
full-time writer or do you also work in another field? If so, what field?
Full-time!
*´¨✫)
Natasza grew up on the beautiful West Coast of British Columbia with the Pacific Ocean on her western doorstep, and thousands of acres of forest on the other. After finishing school, her life took a drastic twist, and a lifelong working relationship with the marine industry began.
